Has AI Changed Software Development? (2024-01-06 DBW)

Database Weekly for January 6, 2024 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [Database Weekly]( The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News by SQLServerCentral.com Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge Editorial  Has AI Changed Software Development? I saw a piece that asked the question about [AI and software development, specifically ChatGPT, a year after its release](. Has software development changed? It's a question I've been trying to ask for myself, though I do think the way AI works for lots of code is fundamentally different than how it works for databases. Databases need a lot of context, with schema and relationships, whereas a lot of other code can be structured in a more narrow sense, focused on an algorithm rather than specifically needing to reference other objects. That's not to say that a generative AI can write application code better than database code. I think in both cases it can be helpful or hurtful. As I read the article, I find myself agreeing that AI has changed software development. It's a tool, and it can be useful. It can help structure code, point out issues, and help with building tests. That being said, I also agree with this sentence in the article: "...given that to write anything resembling maintainable code with AI, you'll need some level of expertise in programming." Everything I've seen from AIs still requires a review from a human that understands if the AI is on the right track in approaching the problem. I've written this a few times (and discussed it with others) that I think an AI produces junior level code in many cases, and it takes a subject matter expert to decide if that's OK for the situation. However, I feel that AI does a few things really well. First, it's a great search engine, able to understand multiple prompts in a row that narrow in the thing I might spend much more time searching for. It also does some nice predictive things in guessing what code is needed next. In most application languages, this is helpful. In SQL, not so much, since the SQL language lays code out in a way that makes it harder to predict things. The LINQ structure of from, where, select is much more cleaner in many ways. If only RDBMSes natively executed LINQ... If you've tried AI, what has worked, what prompts give you help? Is there anything especially time-saving you've found? I, and many others, are looking to understand where it can help us. Steve Jones - SSC Editor [Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums](  The Weekly News All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. 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